Gilnean
The people of Gilneas are a nation of survivors. Having walled themselves off from the rest of humanity, they now face threats from neighboring lands as well as from within, which quickly threaten to tear their kingdom apart. After finally fleeing from their ravaged homeland, the proud Gilneans have settled in with the night elves of Darnassus. Having mastered the curse that overtook Gilneas, they have gained the ability to transform into worgen form at will. Their leader, King Genn Greymane, currently resides in Stormwind Keep, within Stormwind City. There, he helps King Varian Wrynn by commanding the 7th Legion in their assault on the now contested Gilneas. The people of Gilneas are called Gilneans. Introduction The human kingdom had supported the Alliance during the Second War, but King Greymane had no qualms about severing all ties to the outside world when it became clear that the Alliance needed Gilneas more than Gilneas needed the Alliance. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, darkness fell on Gilneas after the Greymane Wall's gates had been closed, and the worgen curse ravaged the nation. Before long, Gilneans were fighting against Gilneans in a bloody civil war that left the kingdom in tatters. Remarkably, the people of Gilneas have somehow managed to hold on to the last vestiges of their humanity for now. History Following their victory in their war against the trolls, the empire of Arathor entered into a period of prosperity and growth. After the death of King Thoradin the empire began to expand, founding new city states in the wilderness - including Gilneas. Each city grew and prospered, Gilneas and Alterac developed strong armies which explored the world. Over time the power of Gilneas and the other city states grew as that of Strom waned, eventually they developed their own customs and beliefs and the empire splintered into independent kingdoms. Under the rule of King Archibald, Gilneas prospered even further eventually rivalling the kingdoms of Stormwind and Lordaeron. By the start of the Second War Gilneas was one of the most powerful human nations, and because of this, the kingdom's ruler, Genn Greymane, was not a strong supporter of the Alliance, believing that his own armies would be more than enough to deal with any threat. Despite this, Gilneas was not neutral towards the Horde, and did join the Alliance late in the Second War, although Lord Greymane constantly argued against its existence from beginning to end. A token force under the command of Lord Godfrey, at his own insistence, fought the orcs with disastrous results that further damaged Greymane's feelings towards Lordaeron. Shortly after the Horde was defeated, Greymane pulled his nation's "support" from the Alliance, refusing to spend his nation's resources on keeping the orcs alive in internment camps or in rebuilding other nations devastated by the war. Gilneas, along with Stromgarde, in fact lead the outcry over the decision not to execute their defeated enemies. Greymane's isolationism may have been influenced by Daval Prestor, secretly the black dragon Deathwing in human form, who Greymane had supported to the throne of Alterac. The Greymane Wall and Third War Some time after the Second War, Greymane constructed the Greymane Wall — an enormous stone barrier that now separates Gilneas from Lordaeron. Attempting to forever remove his nation from what he considered "other people's troubles", he barricaded the majority of Gilneas behind the Wall. No one, not even other humans were allowed to enter Gilneas. The lands of Lord Darius Crowley including Pyrewood and Ambermill were notably separated from their liege and nation by the Wall, effectively ceded to Lordaeron. The Greymane Wall even remained closed to human refugees begging to be allowed in during and after the Scourge's invasion of Lordaeron. The status of Gilneas became unclear to the outside world, and rumours of what was transpiring there became the subject of rumours throughout the Alliance - the renowned explorer Brann Bronzebeard theorized that it had fallen to the naga as one such example. The Scourge maintained a heavy presence in Silverpine until the Alliance, under Grand Marshal Garithos, claimed several key victories in and around Dalaran, and the Forsaken emerged from the Scourge’s shattering in civil war. Yet at the peak of their strength, the Scourge relentlessly assaulted the Greymane Wall and threatened to devour all Gilneas. King Greymane’s armies marched out to meet the undead hordes, but were decimated. In a desperate attempt to hold the seemingly-unstoppable Scourge at bay, Greymane ordered his court archmage, Arugal, to unleash a 'secret weapon' against the Scourge — the worgen, who had been contained for millennia in the Emerald Dream. Unfortunately, after attacking the Scourge, the worgen turned on the Gilnean soldiers, infecting them with their Curse, and began attacking other humans living in Silverpine Forest. Before long the affliction had advanced through the legendary barrier and was gradually eating away at Gilneas’ humanity. As reports of strange attacks and disappearances rose, fear took root in the hearts of Genn’s people. Gilneas was shielded from the rest of the world, by the Greymane Wall by land and by its high cliffs and treacherous reefs by sea. Refugees and other nations long entreated Gilneas for aid, but these unfortunates never so much as saw a Gilnean. Many became easy prey for the worgen that occasionally strayed south from Shadowfang Keep. For many years King Greymane forbade any attempt to leave the self-isolated, and all ports were closed, leaving sailors and people of other nations stranded in Gilneas (such as Tobias Mistmantle, and the pirates of the Brashtide Crew). Gilneans that were themselves locked out of their homeland were a rare sight, but not unknown (such as Baron Longshore, captain of the pirate ship “Heedless”). While Greymane's efforts to stem the tide of the Scourge kept Gilneas from the grasp of the undead, the Greymane Wall inadvertently subjected the Gilneans to a dark fate all the same. Many fell under the worgen curse, as it did with their neighbours to the north in Silverpine before them. A small group of soldiers known as the Gilneas Brigade joined the Human Expedition led by Jaina Proudmoore during the Third War, but these were actually sent by Lord Crowley as an act of defiance against Genn. Civil War Although once a close friend of Genn Greymane, his staunch isolationism led Lord Darius Crowley to eventually take up arms against his king. Leading his armed supporters into Gilneas City in an attempt to depose King Genn, a bloody civil war erupted between the two factions, pitting Gilnean against Gilnean, brother against sister. The so-called ‘Northgate rebellion’ officially ended when Crowley and his leading allies were captured by Greymane's forces, although rebels and their sympathisers continued to hoard weapons and supplies around Gilneas. Political divisions had led to a deep and bitter hatred between ‘rebels’ and ‘royals’, something that has only just begun to heal with the Gilneans’ focus shifting to their common enemies. The Cataclysm Unbeknownst to many of the kingdom's citizens, a war between beast and man raged within the worgen themselves. To compound the worgen threat, the Forsaken started battering at the nation's gates in a bid to conquer Gilneas. Under orders from Garrosh Hellscream, now Warchief of the Horde, Sylvanas Windrunner was commanded to conquer the lands of Gilneas to secure resources and its safe ports. Sylvanas had her own objective – the retrieval of the Scythe of Elune, an artifact capable of summoning complacent worgen that could spread their curse to all humanity. Due to the efforts of the ancient ‘Alpha Prime’ of the worgen, Ralaar Fangfire, the worgen epidemic grew with fervor. Ultimately his Bloodfang pack of wild worgen launched a massive attack on Gilneas City, overrunning the kingdom’s capital. Crowley and his Northgate Rebels were released from Stoneward Prison by Greymane’s edict and quickly agreed to give aid to King Genn, who had ordered the evacuation of Gilneas City to Duskhaven. In order to divert the worgen's attention from the fleeing citizens, Crowley led a group of Gilneans to stand against them at Light's Dawn Cathedral. Crowley and his followers were overwhelmed, and became worgen themselves. Only with the aid of a night elf priestess Belysra, a secret counsellor of Greymane, were the cursed Gilneans shown a way to retain control of their human minds once transformed into worgen. Many, however, remained feral and under the sway of Alpha Prime, an ally of Sylvanas, until his death at Tal’doren. Finding a short-lived refuge in Duskhaven, Krennan Aranas, Greymane’s court alchemist, managed to restore temporary sanity to a number of captured feral worgen. The Gilneans’ respite was to be short-lived, as the Cataclysm destroyed some of the jagged reefs that protected Gilneas from sea and breached the famed Greymane Wall itself, allowing the Forsaken to pour into Gilneas by land from Silverpine as well as land at Duskmist Shore. As the Forsaken invasion progressed, the whole south-west of Gilneas began collapsing into the sea, destroying Duskhaven. Gilnean survivors fled to abandoned Stormglen Village as Greymane and Lord Godfrey travelled to Tal'doren to ask Darius Crowley and other worgen healed by the Night Elves to help unite Gilneas against the Forsaken. Due to Lord Godfrey's tyrannical command, Crowley was hesitant to accept. Greymane told Crowley that he is asking him as a friend and not as a king, and after revealing that he too had succumbed to the worgen curse, they agreed to join forces. Though the Gilneans, worgen and human alike, led a valiant attempt at driving off the Forsaken by reclaiming occupied Gilneas City, Horde reinforcements and the use of the Forsaken’s Blight would soon overwhelm them. With his son Liam killed by Sylvanas herself, Genn decided to seek sanctuary in Darnassus and one day return to reclaim Gilneas. Driven by their curse and the threat of the Forsaken, Gilneas was finally driven back into the Alliance's fold, owing a great debt to the night elves who helped heal the minds of many who fell victim to the worgen curse. Lord Crowley and his loyal worgen; the Gilneas Liberation Front, have renewed the war against the Forsaken, advancing as far as northern Silverpine Forest. With the aid of a gnomish submarine used to break the Horde’s blockade of Gilneas, the elite 7th Legion spearheaded a vast Alliance offensive to reclaim all of Lordaeron from the Forsaken, starting with Gilneas The combined forces of the Alliance (including Gilnean and now-allied Bloodfang worgen) quickly bested the Forsaken occupiers of Gilneas City, eventually pushing them past the Greymane Wall. However, the Horde managed to rally in Silverpine, holding back the 7th Legion and enabling the Forsaken to resurrect Lord Godfrey as one of their own, a fact that none of the Gilneans were aware of. Sylvanas Windrunner’s use of the val'kyr to resurrect fallen humans as allies forced the Alliance to rely on soldiers of other races. Crowley later surrendered to Sylvanas after she took his daughter hostage, threatening her with undeath. This signaled an end to the Alliance offensive in Silverpine, although the Bloodfang Pack expanded their activities into the Hillsbrad Foothills. Meanwhile Lord Godfrey rebelled against Sylvanas and killed her (although she was quickly resurrected) and took over Shadowfang Keep as an independent power. Sylvanas returned to Undercity to recover. The Alliance retains their foothold over Gilneas but is constantly under assault by the Horde as the Battle for Gilneas rages on. Following the defeat of Garrosh Hellscream during the Siege of Orgrimmar, King Varian Wrynn states that the Alliance will reclaim Gilneas for the Gilneans and worgen alike. Ecology Culture A person from Gilneas is referred to as "Gilnean". Like most humans, they typically revere the Holy Light, though some formerly reclusive ruralists practice a form of druidism. Such people were known as harvest-witches by the majority of the population. The wolf appears to be a common symbol of Gilneas, one that adorns almost everything in the country. Innumerable wolf tails hang inside homes and taverns, and a wolf skull adorns its coat-of-arms. However, unlike Silverpine Forest to their north, there are no wolves in Gilneas proper. Having been walled off from the rest of Lordaeron it is possible that wolves have been hunted to extinction, as Gilneas seems to be currently home to both sheep husbandry and a hunting culture. Proving themselves the superior predator, Gilneans may have adopted the wolf to represent themselves. Category:Races Category:Humans Category:Bestiary Category:Warcraft